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No. 4 Bears (7-2) Sweep No. 26 Wildcats, 7-0

Berkeley, Calif. - The No. 4 California women's tennis team breezed past the No. 26 Arizona Wildcats, 6-1, this afternoon March 7 at the Hellman Tennis Courts in Berkeley. The Bears claimed two of the three doubles matches to secure the point before taking five of the six singles matches.

The cal duo of Jody Scheldt and Jieun Jacobs first to finish on court No. 2, breezing past Maja Mlakar and Debbie Larocque for the 8-2 victory. On court three, Catherine Lynch and Nicole Havlicek gave their opponent a quick 4-1 lead in which they would not recover from in an 8-5 loss to Kelly Perry and Kristy Randono. The deciding doubles match came down to court No. 1 where the 13th-ranked pair of Raquel Kops-Jones and Christina Fusano was in a fight for their lives. At one point down 6-4, the Cal tandem took charge in dramatic fashion, winning four straight games to clinch the doubles point for the Bears with an 8-6 victory over Dianne Hollands and Emilie Scribot.

Cal seemed to feed off the doubles momentum, especially Kops-Jones. The junior All-American barely stopped to breathe in a straight set 6-1, 6-1 victory over Maja Mlakar on the top court. Havlicek continued the winning trend on court No. 5 with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Kelly Perry. Havlicek rolled through the first set, breaking Perry's service twice, but was pushed to the limit in the second set where she was once up 4-0. Perry made a strong run to tie the set at 5-5, but Havlicek persevered to claim the third point for the Golden Bears.

Court No. 4 ultimately clinched the match for Cal as Jacobs withstood a strong second set run from Debbie Larocque, winning the match for the Bears with a 6-4, 6-4 victory. The rest of the matches were for personal pride as Fusano defeated Emilie Scribot 6-4, 6-3 on court two and Lynch hung on for a 6-3, 7-5 win on court No. 3.

Perhaps the most exciting match of the afternoon, Scheldt fell behind by one set to Kristy Randono before forcing a third set tiebreaker in claiming the 1-6, 7-6, (11-9) victory to give the Bears the sweep.

Cal returns to action tomorrow, Saturday March 8 when it hosts No. 7 Arizona State in an 11:00 a.m. matchup at Hellman Tennis Courts in Berkeley.